Arts Correspondent Brian Ferguson hears from John Robb, project manager for Capital Theatres’ refurbishment of the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh.
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00:00Hi, I'm Brian Ferguson, Arts Correspondent at The Scotsman. I'm here with John Robb,
00:05who's the Project Manager for Capitol Theatre's big refurbishment job on King's Theatre in
00:11Edinburgh. John, it's just over two years since the King's Theatre was last opened for
00:16Edinburgh International Festival performances. What has been happening in this theatre since
00:21then?
00:22Well, an awful lot. We have just more or less completed the major part of the demolitions.
00:28It's taken us since the end of that festival in 22 to demolish most of the works in here.
00:33That's the removal of the old stairwells, so that we can put in the new lift shafts
00:38and the replacement stairwells, which will go up both sides. So we'll have two lifts
00:42on either side of the foyer. You can see just in the background, we've demolished the doors
00:47that now take you steps straight into the back of the stalls. And we've put the new
00:50fly tower on the building to allow us to operate in a more professional and modern 21st century
00:57operational way. And we have excavated out the cafe, new cafe area, and prepared the
01:03new creative engagement space up in the attic.
01:06So how much have you taken out, and then how much new stuff is going in?
01:10I believe up until a month and a half ago, we had taken over 2,000 tonnes of rubble out
01:16of the building. The old stairwells and plasterwork walls and things. It was over 2,000 tonnes.
01:23And have you pretty much finished all the demolition work inside the building?
01:26There's small bits that when we get to it, we'll have to take some steps out or a wall down.
01:30But the demolition contractors are now offsite. They've been on site since February 23.
01:39And that's them now offsite. So it's mostly people putting stuff, the new stairwells in.
01:46It's most contractors putting equipment into the building and not removing it.
01:52So what stage is the project at at the moment in terms of the timeline for when things might be back up and running again?
01:58I think the phraseologies were over 60%, 70% and close to, I'm probably being optimistic saying 70%,
02:05but we're well over 60% of the way through the job. And it's mostly to do with finishing off.
02:13We've got a client fit-out to do to put in all the lighting and sound equipment and things like that
02:17on top of finishing off the construction works.
02:21In terms of the difference that people will notice when they come to the Kings,
02:25what do you think the big differences will be in terms of the overall experience?
02:28I think from outside, you'll not notice an awful lot of difference.
02:31There'll be a new canopy and new signage and the windows will feel very different.
02:36But when you come in, it will seem extremely familiar to people.
02:39The big changes, most of the bigger interventions we've done are behind closed doors
02:47or behind doors where there's new stairwells and audience circulation lifts and the new facilities backstage.
02:55These are going to be the key elements.
02:57There'll be a new bar. All the bars are being refitted and made again into a 21st century bar.
03:02But the foyer, this area we're in here, will feel very similar.
03:06We're doing very little in here. All the woodwork here, the panelling, is covering up all the old marble
03:11and that will just be cleaned up and refreshed.
03:14So it will feel really familiar but just be a much, much better place to move around.
03:18Will it be able to do more productions here and also bigger productions than before?
03:25It's going to make things much easier for us to do.
03:28The loading facilities for us, for the door, the getting door, was always quite high
03:32and that was always quite a problem to load in.
03:34It's being lowered, so the stage is being, it was a rake stage before, it's being lowered down at the back
03:39and so it will be more level to come in off a truck bed, which means much speedier turnarounds for shows.
03:44With the new increased fly floor, that will mean that we can operate much quicker at rigging
03:50and putting in all the lighting and scenery will happen much, much quicker.
03:54And so, and with the flat floor, it means it's more suitable for dance.
03:58A lot of modern dance companies can't dance on rake stages.
04:01So it gives us the ability to tackle productions that have been out of our reach for the past, since it opened.
04:10When will people be able to come to see a show here again?
04:14As soon as we're finished, Ryan.
04:16When might that be?
04:18We are aiming for the spring, 2026, so that we get it back over the winter of 25
04:27and we've got our install to do and we'll be opening in spring 2026 with a very exciting new programme.
04:34Stay tuned on Scotsman.com